Chasing Mr. Carlton ( The story of a Shrew's Son)

Part 21

"I can't believe I'm here." Bobby said, feeling distinctly out of place as they entered the mansion in Palisades.

"Oh come on, you know everyone." Matt said, rolling his eyes and moving down the hall to the foyer. "You've been here plenty of times.

"Usually for work." She said with a sigh.

As they advanced down the hall, Bobby could hear the voices getting louder- there was a lot of laughter and she suddenly realized that she was about to be confronted with possibly the most perfect family in existence. That made the feeling in the pit of her stomach even more poignant.

"Here." Matt said, taking her bag and putting it down with him in the foyer. "Come on."

Bobby followed him as he moved towards the kitchen, which connected to a large and comfortable breakfast room.

"Hey!" The voices were coming at her from everywhere as Matt opened the doors and entered.

"Hey!" He said, moving along and almost tripping over as a tiny little girl ran up to him.

"Matt!" She said with a smile. "You took forever!"

Matt laughed, scooping Charlie up.

"Hey cutie." He said, kissing her cheek.

Bobby was completely in awe. The entire breakfast room was covered in decorations- hand cut snowflakes and garland and it smelled like pine and cookies.

She moved into the room, noticing that most of them were gathered at the table, all chairs pushed aside as the kneaded dough.

"Bobby, I'm glad you came." Nora said, moving over to greet her, flour all over the apron she wore. Was this really that high fashion, high powered, billionaire career woman she greeted every morning?

"Thank you for having me." She said, moving around subsequently to greet everyone. She turned then, to Matt who was playing with Charlie.

"Charlie- This is Bobby, do you remember Bobby?" Matt asked.

"No." Charlie said honestly, looking her over, "But I like her eyes."

There was some chuckles at this as Charlie reached out and tried to grab Bobby's glasses.

"Well, I remember you, Charlie. You're getting so big." Bobby said with a smile and Charlie grinned.

"Matt is big too." Charlie said but then she frowned. "Bobby is small."

Bobby burst out laughing- she'd never been compared to Matt in size before. It was actually quite hilarious as there was definitely a comparable difference there. Over a foot she was sure. 

"Since it's Christmas, all of our staff is off." Nora said, walking back to the table. "Every single one so we... are left with the duty of making our own Christmas breakfast."

Bobby raised her brow and moved to wash her hands.

"Dig in whenever you're ready." George said as she patted her husband on the face with flour.

"Have you ever baked before?" Matt asked, thinking it would be funny to watch Bobby try to maneuver this but he should have known better. Bobby smiled and lifted her brows.

"Just a little." She said, moving back towards the table.

"You can find everything you need here." Matt said, pointing to the counter.

They certainly did have everything- eggs, a pitcher with milk, softened butter, sugars, creams, vanilla extract, orange oil, spices ...everything, including a luxury stand mixer.